PITT Wrestling Must Expand It's Recruiting

[BuffetParrothead]

The 2016-17 PA State Wrestling team championship was Nazareth vs Bethlehem Catholic with Nazareth winning the PA state championship!
Both teams are from the powerhouse eastern part of the state along with Easton, Parkland, Northhampton, Freedom, Liberty, etc. Look up those teams including Nazareth and Bethlehem Catholic and count the number of PA team state championships those teams have won!
Both our kids wrestled on one of those teams which won a PA State Championship!
Western PA has some good teams but PITT must expand recruiting to the Eastern part of the state, Ohio, Western NJ, and other wrestling hotbeds.
This won't happen until PITT gets a high profile coach, and begins to establish wrestlings programs for youth wrestlers in those areas.

 

[thom67]

Pitt has gone to other areas for recruiting. Mostly because they have failed to get recruits(top ones) from W PA. Their best recruits in recent years have been from Ohio.

 

[Pitt Law '04]

Pat Santoro has really good recruiting connections in NE PA and NJ.

 

[thom67]

Too bad he isn't the Pitt coach.

 

[goalieman]

Too bad he isn't the Pitt coach.

Yeah, Pat would have been a great hire ..... would have excited the fan base and he apparently had donors behind him ready to contribute ..... very disappointing but we'll have to see who eventually is hired ...... right now, I don't have a good feeling about it.

 

[mike412]

Pitt actually has recruited Eastern PA well in the past. We had brothers who were both multiple state champions at Easton. Unfortunately, both were tossed out of school.
More recently, Mikey Racciotti and Ryan Solomon, both state champions, were from that area. And, we had a freshman this year from Wyoming, PA, who wrestled at a private school, but he was hurt most of the season. Eastern PA probably is more open now because Sanderson is recruiting nationally and isn't taking many kids from there. Retherford is maybe the best wrestler in the country now but he is the only PSU wrestler I can think of from there.

It should be part of Pitt's regular recruiting area, along with NJ and eastern Ohio.

 

[Cat classic]

Mike, you kill me. You are a prime example of a little bit of knowledge being dangerous. The brothers you speak of were not both thrown out of school. One definitely had his problems,the other one was an excellent student and a great wrestler. I watched him his freshman year at nationals wrestling a great match and proceed to get his knee ripped apart. He subsequently suffered numerous injuries, but the one that broke the camel's back was a serious elbow dislocation, I believe at Midlands. Please stop disparaging people with your misinformation.

 

[Kreitzer]

Absolutely right Mike. Wrestling recruiting is becoming a little more like basketball, in that club coaches have a lot more to do with it than high school coaches anymore. Recruiters need to work through them. Thankfully, it's not driven by shoe company money. I know a lot of wrestling club coaches, and they are typically good guys. It's not the swamp that AAU basketball is, and I don't think it ever will be. It's a different breed of people, so I have no problem with building a pipeline with Young Guns, Dark Knights, etc.

 

[pafootballguy]

It's a different breed of people, so I have no problem with building a pipeline with Young Guns, Dark Knights, etc.

Pitt is not going to build pipelines into those clubs, could they get some talent yes but they will never have a pipeline as long as PSU in the state and Iowa has a wrestling program.

 

[Kreitzer]

Maybe pipeline was the wrong term. They need to build relationships with the clubs. PSU and Iowa will always get kids, but Pitt is getting beaten recruiting PA clubs by Virginia and Virginia Tech.

 

[thom67]

Pitt needs to build relationships with local coaches. They have not done that in past. I know of at least 2 local coaches that have been turned off by Pitt and both are influential with some of the top recruits. They both have former ties to Pitt!